White International

The White International was a proposed plan to establish an international reactionary-monarchist organisation in the aftermath of World War I. It was characterised by anti-Bolshevik positions, opposition to the Entente powers, and alignment with right-wing and traditionalist ideologies. The initiative aimed to create a coordinated counter-revolutionary movement in response to the German revolution of 1918–1919, the Russian Revolution, and the Dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Its objectives included the restoration of monarchies under the Hohenzollern, Habsburg-Lorraine, Wittelsbach, and Romanov dynasties, as well as the suppression of liberal democratic and communist revolutionary movements. The project also opposed the emerging political order in Central Europe and Eastern Europe that was being shaped during the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920).

The project also aspired to renew traditionalist political movements by proposing alternative reforms to monarchical institutions. These proposals rejected the legacy of Enlightened absolutism and advocated a more decentralised German Empire, limiting Protestant Prussian dominance in favour of greater autonomy for Catholic Southern Germany. This vision included a confederation with the Habsburg Danubian Crowns, with the restoration of institutions such as the Bohemian Estates and the Transylvanian Diet, and the removal of policies of Centralisation, Germanisation, and Magyarization. In the case of Russia, the plan envisaged a restored Russian Empire with representative institutions, such as the Zemsky Sobor or Ukrainian hetmanates, intended to moderate Tsarist autocracy and Russification.

Background

During World War I, the Russian Empire entered a period of crisis that culminated in the Abdication of Nicholas II and the establishment of the Russian Republic. These developments provoked opposition among Russian monarchists, some of whom began plotting the restoration of the Romanov dynasty, including the consideration of seeking assistance from forces associated with the Central Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War, particularly the Freikorps in the Baltic.